The Trump administration is intently focused on scaling back tourism to the island as part of a campaign to smother the Cuban economy.
An old American car drives past the Riviera Hotel on May 7, 2019. Cuba welcomed 1.93 million visitors in the first four months of the year, a 7% increase from 2018.
Across the Florida Straits, the Trump administration is intently focused on scaling back tourism to the island as part of a campaign to smother the Cuban economy and force its government to sever ties with President Nicolas Maduro's government in Venezuela. Cuba began to open the island to tourists after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent loss of billions of dollars a year in aid. In 1996, Cuba had 30,000 state-owned hotel rooms and about a million tourists a year.
Official figures show that 257,000 Americans visited Cuba in the first four months of 2019, a 93% increase over the same period last year. Meanwhile, about 142,000 came on cruise ships, a form of travel that remains legal and is largely responsible for the rising number of American travelers to Cuba. Only 40,000 American cruise passengers visited Cuba in the first four months of 2018.
Cuba is currently trying to revive businesses ranging from agriculture to textiles by turning them into part of the supply chain for the tourism business. State-run factories, warehouses and workshops are largely in disrepair after years of embargo and central planning, and many of the millions earned by hotels and tour buses must be turned around and spent on imported goods ranging from food to bedsheets.
Still, experts say that the state-run tourism sector brings in $3 billion a year and the private side brings in the same, despite being nearly one-third the size. In a country where food lines are growing, aid from Venezuela is dwindling and industries such as nickel and sugar are mostly stagnant, tourism also might be one of the only ways forward.
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